Page 50 Cowboy Chronicle July 2011

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Army pistols altered to fire cartridgesat the frontier were chambered forthe .44 Colt center-fire rounds. TheLong Cylinder Conversion of the ColtArmy was allegedly fabricated some-time after the end of the Civil Warsouth of the border, and the Colt OpenTop Model 1871-72 were chamberedfor another .44 caliber round. Thesetwo breechloaders were chamberedfor the rim fire cartridge .44 Henryand its successor, the Stetson .44Henry respectively.

Back in the days, this was verypopular and readily available ammothanks to the Henry rifle and the Win-chester ‘66. Model 1860 type LongCylinder Conversions and Open Topscould accommodate this ammo be-cause they came with a specially madecylinder without the typical Army re-bate. In other words, their cylinderswere straight, with an identical diam-eter at the front and breech side.

Compared to the .44 Colt CF the.44 Henry RF is the more powerfulround of the two when launched froma revolver with 7", 5", or 8" tube re-spectively. The .44 Henry deserves tobe remembered for another impor-tant aspect, rarely mentioned in gunliterature or books on the Wild, WildWest. Since you could load thisround in the above mentioned pistolsAND rifles, the concept “one type ofammo fits all“ was in reality almost10 years before the famous combo ofColt SAA Frontier Six-Shooter and

et’s talk about the ammo fora minute. The diameter ofthe rebate section of an orig-inal model 1860 Army cylin-

der or one of her clones is smallerthan its forward area. We know thisis due to the Army’s lineage from the1851 Navy. That being the case, howcan you load six .44 cal. cartridgesinto the chambers of an Army conver-sion cylinder?

.44 Colt CF Cartridge: The sim-ple truth during the second half of the1860s, the 1870s and 1880s, andtoday is this. If it is your objective tostick to the original dimensions of aModel 1860 type Army conversion,you need a .44 cal. cartridge with arim smaller than what is used todayfrom the venerable .44 Russian, themore modern .44 Special, or .44 Mag-num, and surely smaller than thevarious .45 cal. revolver ammos avail-able like .45 S&W or .45 Colt. Thisconsideration led to the developmentand eventually the introduction of thegood old .44 Colt center-fire cartridge.

This round was officially adoptedby the US military between 1871 and1873 for their Colt Army breech load-ing conversions. Later, it was gradu-ally replaced by the more powerful.45 Colt for the Colt Single ActionArmy. At the Western and South-western frontier of the United States,the old .44 Colt round was a trustedand respected revolver cartridge fordecades, not only with the military,but also farmers, cowboys, and themen on both sides of the law.

During the early decades of the20th century, Colt breech loadingArmy conversions and the .44 Coltwere widely used again. They saw ac-tion in great numbers in the numer-ous skirmishes of the Mexicanrevolution between 1910 and 1929.As a result, the cartridge was manu-factured until WW2 with blackpow-der and smokeless loads.

.44 Henry RF/Stetson .44Henry RF: Colt Army factory breechloading conversions and most Model

L

Colt Army ConVerSionS

The War Department & best wifey of them allengages steel buffalo targets at the Bar HRanch in Clarendon, TX using my Henryloaded with .44 Colt smokeless ammo

Thoughts about Ammo for Colt Army Conversions,the 1871-72 Open Top, and their Modern Clones

By Long Johns Wolf

A comparison of the old Henry .44caliber rimfire and the later .44caliber Colt round (Picture liber-ated from CAS-City forum)

The modern .44 Colt cartridge, see right column in table, only has the name in common with the old one.

Technically it is a .44 Special with the case shortened a mite and a smaller rim.

Centaure “Mystery” Conversion#11691, .44 Colt cal.: Converted 2010 by Austrianmaster Karl Nedbal. Originals were allegedlymade circa 1875 in Mexico. The “Mystery” is a

Model 1860 conversion cross between army barrel withbarrel lug of 1861 Navy conversion profile, RM type ejectorhousing, cylinder and frame assembly, narrow “saddle”-type conversion ring, chambered for .44 Colt.

Like the originals, the Centaure LongCylinder Conversion has no loadinggate. That works fine as long as you

are not cocking the pistol while aimingat the sun! Similar to the later ColtOpen Top, a number of these Long

Cylinder Conversions had their rearsight dove tailed on top of the barrel.

Part 2

messing up theequipment with theoutside lubed bullets.

Today’s .44 cal-iber Colt Army con-versions fabricatedby replica makersare chambered forthis modern round.

You can firethese .44 Colt rounds

from pistols chambered for .44 Specialor .44 Magnum, like a .38 Special willwork in a .357 Magnum revolver …but not the other way round, please.

Did you note my reluctance tocomment on modern Army conver-sions in calibers other than .44 Colt?Admitting to my opportunistic semi-purism, I just don’t feel they are right… even if they happen to work … andI love the .44 Colt rounds loaded withsmokeless powder … in my conver-sions, SAAs, and rifles!

Page 51Cowboy ChronicleJuly 2011

such a standardized, and certainly notan automated, process as it is today.Hence, dimensions and power woulddiffer between the various cartridgemakers, but also from batch to batch.

One other observation regardingthese two cartridges ought to be men-tioned here. According to the re-search of the late conversion guru, R.Bruce McDowell, the nominal riflinggroove diameter of the vintage Model1860 tube was .451". This indicatesthe bullets of both the .44 Colt andthe .44 Henry are undersized. Thisfurther implies neither the energynor the accuracy potential of therounds was fully used and gas leak-age was significant, which is in con-trast to our today’s understanding aclose fit of bullet, chamber mouth,and rifling groove diameter is desir-able. What could have been the ra-tionale back then?

Considering the latter, chambermouth and rifling groove diameters ofModel 1860 C&B pistols of all threeColt generations, Italian clones ofArmi San Marco, Armi San Paolo/Eu-roarms, Pietta, Uberti and the FAULCentaures were measured. Readsome surprising results below.

A. Chamber mouth diameters ofall Colt generations and most of theItalians are smaller than their re-spective rifling groove diameters.The exception are Piettas of more re-cent production. The Pietta peopleseem to strive for uniform diameters.

B. The remarkably wide range ofrifling groove diameters around themagic .451 found in the Colts of allgenerations, but also in the Italians,was noteworthy.

C. The Centaures measured havea close fit of the diameters of chambermouths and rifling groove diametersno matter if early 1960 or late 1972production.

Reloaders from the Cowboy Ac-tion Shooting™ faction who are shoot-ing by the thousands rather than bythe hundreds particularly like thismodern .44 Colt round. Not only canyou use readily available 44 calibercomponents, but the straight car-tridge case design lends itself to be re-loaded in today’s semi-automatedmultiple stations presses, without

Centaure Marshal #12089 convertedin 2010 by German gunsmith KlausMumme into a Long Cylinder Con-

version chambered for .44 Colt. Notestraight cylinder. Originals cham-

bered for .44 Henry rimfire wereprobably made by gunsmiths in Mex-ico about the same time Colt manu-

factured their Thuer conversionsduring the late 1860s.

Accuracy of this CentaureLong Cylinder Coversion

belly gun is more than suf-ficient for Cowboy ActionShooting™ distances andbeyond. Rapid fire accu-

racy test from 10 yardswith Centaure Long Cylin-

der Conversion #12069consisted of three stringsof five rounds. The load-ing lever has no function.

Winchester ‘73 in .44-40 cal. hit themarket in 1878!

As you can see in the picture,these two traditional Western car-tridges used outside lubed bullets ofheel type. This implies that case andvisible bullet diameter are more orless identical. Consequently boringthrough a C&B cylinder for such car-tridges was a simple and cheap affairsince no special chamber had to be cut.The latter is usually needed when youare dealing with a round with an in-side lubed bullet instead like modernbig bore cartridges. Without a cham-ber, you end up with a huge amount of“overbore” in the cylinder before sucha bullet hits the forcing cone. You lit-erally have no seal.

Specifications and data of the twoold cartridges in the below table, leftand center column shall serve as ori-entation only, because during the 19th

century, their manufacturing was not

Repro cartridge box for modern .44 Colt rounds loaded with 200 grain inside lubed bullets oversmokeless powder

Comparative view of modern .44Colt (left) and .45 Colt (right)

Smaller rim of .44 Colt (left) compared to .45 Colt (right)

The Centaure “Mystery” Army Conversion was executed by

Karl NedbalWaffentechnische Werkstätte NEDBAL Ges.m.b.H

Ortstraße 189A-2331 VösendorfAustriainfo@nedbal.at www.nedbal.atKlaus MummeSCZ-Schützen Center ZangKönigsbronner Straße 21D-89551 Königsbronn-ZangGermanyKlaus.mumme@gxm.deConverted the short-barrelled Cen-

taure Marshal into a PC non-gatedLong Cylinder Conversion.If you would like to know moreabout these Belgian cousins of theHartford Colt Army 1860 visitwww.1960nma.org.

WDN/February 8, 2011© 2011 Wolf D. Niederastroth

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